4 Facts About ADHD That Teachers & Doctors Never Tell Parents

Putting a child
in a classroom for 8 hours a day, for more than a decade, and expecting
them to listen while remaining ‘obedient’ is very unrealistic. From day
one we are taught that this is the only path to success and we are shown
the consequences of not paying attention. It’s important to recognize
that it’s perfectly normal for children to struggle with paying
attention to something that they are not even remotely interested in;
this doesn’t necessarily mean they have a disorder and it doesn’t mean
they require (potentially quite harmful) prescription medications.

It’s Okay If Your Child Struggles With Attention – This Does’t Mean They Have A Disorder

Many doctors and teachers are already aware of this, but I would like
to reiterate the point — just because your child struggles with paying
attention in school or sitting still in the classroom does not mean
there is an underlying disorder to blame. It’s perfectly natural for
your child to want to be active and to want to focus on things which
actually interest them. Sure, low grades might come as a result of not
paying attention, but it is possible for a 2.0 student to know more than
a 4.0 student; grades don’t necessarily equate with intelligence. In
many cases, they reflect an ability to follow rules and memorize
information — both important skills, but perhaps less important than
critical thinking and creativity. Some students may have a better
ability to buckle down, pay attention, and do their work, while other,
equally as intelligent students, may struggle with this model. This,
again, is perfectly normal, and could actually be a marker of something
really positive. If your child is being held back and being denied even
the possibility of entering a gifted program based on the fact that they
have attention issues, then there is problem.New data from the National Center for Learning Disabilities shows
that only 1 percent of students who receive services for their apparent
learning disabilities (some of which are completely and unquestionably
valid) are enrolled in gifted or talented programs. The report concluded
that “students with learning and attention issues are shut out
of gifted and AP programs, held back in grade level and suspended from
school at higher rates than other students.” (source)

Disorder Or Creativity?

The last point in the above paragraph is
pretty disturbing, particularly given the fact that recent work in
cognitive neuroscience shows us that both those with an ADHD diagnosis,
and creative thinkers, have difficulty in suppressing brain activity
that comes from the “Imagination Network.”
There are no school assessments to evaluate creativity and imagination;
these are admittedly difficult to measure and, accordingly, receive
very little attention in the education system. Yet a lot of research is
pointing to the fact that people who show characteristics of ADHD are
more likely to reach higher levels of creative thought and achievement
compared to those who don’t show these characteristics.

“By automatically treating ADHD
characteristics as a disability– as we so often do in an educational
context– we are unnecessarily letting too many competent and creative
kids fall through the cracks.” – Scott Barry Kaufman,
Scientific Director of The Imagination Institute in the Positive
Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania (source)

While brain scans of people diagnosed
with ADHD do show structural differences, it is a scary reality that a
large portion of ADHD diagnoses are derived from the observations
teachers make in school. Too often, children are diagnosed based on
perceived behaviour alone, and then encouraged to take medication right
away. These children are not actually tested or scanned; they and their
parents are simply told that they have ADHD.

“I think the big mistake in schools
is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic
motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with
your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to
fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” – Stanley Kubrick

Did They Tell You This About The Pharmaceutical Industry?

The quote to your left comes from Harvard Medical professor and the former Editor-in-Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell.
She joins a long and growing list of some very ‘credible’ people within
the medical profession who are trying to tell the world something
important. She has said on several occasions that it is no longer
possible to believe much of the published research, or even to rely on
the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.
(source)

Another great example is Dr. Richard Horton, who is currently the Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, which is considered to be one of the top ranked medical journals in the world. He said that “the
case against science is straightforward, much of the scientific
literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. . . . Science has taken a
turn towards darkness.” (source)

The reason why these professionals are
saying such things is because, as Dr. Angell puts it, “the
pharmaceutical industry likes to depict itself as a research-based
industry, as the source of innovative drugs. Nothing could be further
from the truth. This is their incredible PR and their nerve.”

“The medical profession is being
bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice
of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic
institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid
agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – Arnold Seymour Relman, Harvard Professor of Medicine

The percentage of children with an ADHD
diagnosis continues to increase; it went from 7.8 percent in 2003 all
the way up to 11.0 percent in 2011. According to a recent analysis, ADHD
in children has surged by 43 percent since 2003. (source)

The quotes above aren’t just opinions,
clearly these few (out of many) examples are from people who know a
thing or two about the industry, and it is troublesome to think that
people still believe pharmaceutical corruption and manipulation of
scientific literature are conspiracy theories.

The most recent real world example of
this comes from a few months ago, when an independent review found that
the commonly prescribed antidepressant drug Paxil is not safe for
teenagers — all after the fact that a large amount of literature
had previously suggested this. The 2001 drug trial that took place,
funded by GlaxoSmithKline (also maker of the Gardasil Vaccine),
found that these drugs were completely safe, and used that ‘science’ to
market Paxil as safe for teenagers. The study came from John Ioannidis,
an epidemiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Ioannidis is also the author of the most
widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science
(PLoS), titled “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.” In the report, he stated that most current published research findings are false. And this was more than 10 years ago.

ADHD is classified as a mental disorder,
which is interesting because the definition of these types of disorders
in particular have been shown to be heavily influenced by the
pharmaceutical industry. American psychologist Lisa Cosgrove and others
investigated financial ties between the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) panel members and the pharmaceutical
industry. They found that, of the 170 DSM panel members, 95 (56%) had
one or more financial associations with companies in the pharmaceutical
industry. One hundred percent of the members of the panels on ‘mood
disorders’ and ‘schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders’ had
financial ties to drug companies. The connections are especially strong
in those diagnostic areas where drugs are the first line of treatment
for mental disorders. In the next edition of the manual, it’s the same
thing.

“The DSM appears to be more a
political document than a scientific one. Each diagnostic criteria in
the DSM is not based on medical science. No blood tests exist for the
disorders in the DSMN. It relies on judgements from practitioners who
rely on the manual.” – Lisa Cosgrove, PhD, Professor of Counselling and School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston

The very vocabulary of psychiatry is now defined at all levels by the pharmaceutical industry.” – Dr. Irwin Savodnik, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles (source)

These are definitely some facts to take
into consideration when it comes to dealing with your child’s ADHD
diagnosis. It’s a ‘disease’ — one which I was also diagnosed with — that
I personally don’t even think is real. I think it was made up strictly
for the purpose of making money.

There Are Other Methods To Help Your Child Focus & Improve Your Child’s Ability To Pay Attention

It’s becoming clear that we need a new
approach to ADHD. Apart from examining the truth behind that label, as I
hope I have done in the above paragraphs, it’s important to note that
there does not appear to be much room in our school system for children
who do not fit the ‘normal’ mould of the majority. The fact that we
basically point a finger at them and label them does not really help
anything. As much as we’ve been marketed to believe that medication can
help solve the problem, I really believe they only worsen it. Many of
these medications seem to dull the emotions and energy of the children
taking them, ultimately making for a less positive and rich life
experience.

One great way to improve your child’s
ability to focus is to change their diet. It’s a shame that hardly any
research has been published examining the relationship between mental
‘disabilities’ and diet, since many medical professionals strongly
believe there is a direct link between them. Some studies have, indeed,
emerged which show a link between a gluten/casein free diet and
improvement in autistic symptoms, and some parents have already seen the
benefits of implementing this research. (source)

The Mayo Clinic
claims that certain food preservatives and colourings could increase
hyperactive behaviour in some children. It would be best to avoid these,
regardless of whether they are linked to ADHD or not.It has also been suggested that EEG biofeedback
(electroencephalographic) could help. It’s a type of neurotherapy that
measures brainwaves. You can read more about that here.In 2003, a study published in the journal Adolescencelooked
at how regular massages for 20 minutes twice a week could improve
behaviour in the classroom. This is interesting because studies have
also suggested that tai chi and yoga may also help improve ADHD
symptoms. According to the studies, children with ADHD that practiced
tai chi became less anxious or hyperactive. (source)So, one thing you could try is observing what your child is eating.
You can limit their intake of harmful, hormone disrupting, disease
causing foods like sugar, limit their exposure to pesticides, and
encourage their consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole foods
(rather than processed foods).When it comes down to it, developing methods for your child to pay
attention to something they find boring and/or useless is a difficult
task, and for parents who struggle with this, it’s important to remember
that most likely your child is perfectly normal. It will help to choose
to look at it in a positive light.The fact that children are forced into these institutions, told how
the world works, made to follow certain rules, and pressured to complete
education out of fear of not having a job, is a truly unfortunate
reality of today’s world. It is not the best environment for a child.
Perhaps things will change in the future, but right now it seems
children are encouraged to complete education out of fear, out of
necessity, and out of the mentality that “this is just the way the world
is.”

“When we can’t say ‘No,’ we
become a sponge for the feelings of everyone around us and we eventually
become saturated by the needs of everyone else while our own hearts
wilt and die. We begin to live our lives according to the forceful should of others, rather than the whispered, passionate want of
our own hearts. We let everyone else tell us what story to live and we
cease to be the author of our own lives. We lose our voice — we lose the
desire planted in our souls and the very unique way in which we might
live out that desire in the world. We get used by the world instead of being useful in the world.” – Dr. Kelly M. Flanagan, a licensed clinical psychologist, Ph.D. in clinical psychology (source)

Perhaps sitting down and talking to your
child, letting them know that there is nothing wrong with them and that
they don’t have a ‘disorder’ is a good start, at least for those who
have already been labeled. Again, just because one person struggles with
paying attention does not mean they have a disorder. If the information
above is any indication, it could actually mean the opposite.

Having your child even believe in that
type of label could be harmful. Given the recent developments in
neuroplasticity and parapsychology, it has become clear that how a
person thinks alone can change their biology.

Speaking with educators and finding a
differentiated type of instruction more tailored to your child’s needs
and interests could also be a solution. One of the biggest solutions, in
my opinion, is not accepting labels for your children in the first
place.

This is a big problem in modern day
education, and solutions are limited. The issue here really seems to be
the environment the children are surrounded by, not the children
themselves.

Another thing parents could address are
the feelings of the child. Part of growing up is learning to handle our
emotions and tackle whatever challenges life throws at us, but in school
we are only taught content, and that is all we seem to focus on. Humans
are made up of more than just bits of learned information; we all
perceive a certain way and if emotions and thoughts are not openly
discussed and dealt with, it can create problems in other areas.

“I don’t know about you, but in
my adult life, I have never had to use geometry once… yet I experience
emotions and challenges every day. If school is designed to prepare you
for life… why not teach actual life skills?” – Elina St. Onge